We are ready to proceed on EU talks: Says Erdogan

We are ready to proceed on EU talks: Says Erdogan

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is currently in Turkey and is discussing the Cyprus issue with Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan.

The two leaders met one to one as well as with their delegations. At the end of these meetings, they gave a joint press conference yesterday.

When questioned, Mr Erdogan said that he wanted to stress that the recent elections were not for Cyprus but only for South Cyprus; just as there had been similar elections in North Cyprus.

Mr Erdogan said that Turkey stood by its responsibilities as a guarantor power and hoped that Greece would do the same. He pointed out that Turkey had already made a number of offers around opening its ports to south Cyprus but that these had been rejected.

On the question of EU membership, Turkey was ready to proceed said Mr Erdogan, adding that he felt he was already in the EU because there were some 5 million Turks residing in the EU at this time.